SNC-Lavalin skirted rules with $118K in political donations

• Montreal- based global engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. continues to dig out from a series of scandals, this time involving improper donations to federal political parties over a seven-year period ending in 2011.

A compliance agreement with the federal elections commissioner, announced Thursday, details almost $118,000 in donations to the Liberal and Conservative parties through company employees or their spouses who were then reimbursed by SNC-Lavalin.

This illegal practice for skirting corporate donation limits was identified by a Quebec anti- corruption inquiry as a widespread problem in municipal and Quebec provincial politics, although the provincial Charbonneau Commission’s mandate prevented it from following federal political threads.

Not so federal elections commissioner Yves Côté, whose office says it continues to pursue the matter.

“The compliance agree- ment that was made public today is part of that investigation, but the investigation continues,” said spokeswoman Michelle Laliberte. “It is not completed yet.”

According to the agreement entered into by SNCLavalin, former senior executives approached employees to make political contributions and, in some cases, those employees were reimbursed with refunds for false personal expenses, fictitious bonuses or other benefits.

The improperly donated sums included: $ 83,534.51 to the Liberal Party of Canada; $ 13,552.13 to various Liberal riding associations; $ 12,529.12 to four contestants in the 2006 Liberal l eadership race, i ncluding $ 5,000 each to Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae; $3,137.73 to the Conservative Party of Canada; and $5,050 to various Conservative riding associations.

All the funds have been repaid to the federal treasury by the respective national parties, both of whom disavow any knowledge of the scheme.

“As s oon as LPC was made aware of the issue last month by Elections Canada, the party acted i mmediately to fully reimburse all of the amounts involved, including those pertaining to 2006 leadership campaigns ( which have l ong s i nce closed their accounts),” Liberal spokesman Braeden Caley said in an email.

Conservative party spokesman Cory Hann said the improper funds “were returned to the receiver general as soon as we were notified these individuals’ donations were reimbursed by a corporation,” adding the party expects donors to act truthfully and within the law.

The elections watchdog said SNC- Lavalin co- operated fully, accepts responsibility for the improper payments and acknowledges the contributions were made on the company’s behalf. The compliance agreement, however, does not constitute an admission of guilt under criminal law.

The deal includes SNCLavalin hiring an in- house ethics watchdog, putting in place new “compliance and governance policies to detect, curb and prevent ethically problematic practices” and updating its corporate code of conduct to specifically deal with political donations.

THE PARTY ACTED TO REIMBURSE ALL OF THE AMOUNTS.